Twyla Tharp on Tour: The Wrap Up

Twyla Tharp is writing about rehearsing, touring and creating new work, 50 years after her first dance concert. This is her final post.

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Twyla Tharp at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver.CreditNicholas Coppula

Midday on Sunday, Nov. 15, the skyline of Manhattan came into view off to my left as our tour bus, still on the Jersey side, was driving up from Washington. This vista, to me, is always the opening of Milos Forman’s “Hair.” I worked on the film and this is where we shot Claude Hooper Bukowski’s arrival, because for Milos, this location was iconic. It represented the America offered to any outsiders set on challenging themselves in a world bigger than any they had yet known. To me this is a feeling that is never outgrown.

Set to open our evening of new dances in the Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, Nov. 17, the final stop on my 50th anniversary tour, I had to wonder, how will we do, even though the last year and a half had been gearing toward this moment. Visiting backstage early Monday to check on the load-in, I did some exorcising of ghosts, remembering moments from the past in this house, and then got down to the business at hand.

When the dancers came in on Tuesday afternoon for the tech rehearsal we were ready to go. After 16 different theaters over nine weeks on the road this tech went smoothly. The opening was solid. Wednesday was slightly better, a little more relaxed. Thursday hit a trough. I worried a bit; the dancers still had four shows to go. The company was made up of 12 dancers, all onstage for most of an extremely demanding 90 minutes. So far not a single dancer had missed a single show, and I know that my willingness to project myself into their bodies, sampling their energies at any point along the trajectory of their evening, was partially responsible for this resiliency. But tour fatigue had to be accumulating.

Friday evening, gathering for the traditional mark through of the first fanfare before the house opened up, I could see the dancers were back on track. Saturday afternoon and evening the shows became progressively stronger, and the Sunday matinee was a triumph, the strongest show of all. I was stunned; I knew the dancers were buoyed by the audience’s enthusiastic support, as they had been all along the tour, but never did I expect to see a homestretch performance so strong and confident. A blowout perhaps, but a perfectly poised and paced last show with strength to spare — way to go guys.

After the final show on Sunday night I slept 12 hours and took Monday off. But Tuesday was time to think again about being in the studio. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about starting over again. One foot down, next foot up. Find two ideas to rub together. No judgment, just get it down. But this small daily practice is, for me, sanity, and to begin constructing a new phrase of movement is my connection to the world.

During the tour, I have also connected through this blog. Writing has been a special challenge and presents a conflict. It is rare that a creator has the opportunity to share both context and subtext with the audience: what surrounds the work — its difficulties and challenges — as well as its inspiration. I suspect that is in part because these are two completely different modes: One is doing, the other is accounting. It’s like trying to be both the commentator and coach at the same Monday night football game. I’m still working this out.

Yes, art comes from a singular point of view, but you won’t go far by yourself. Fannie Ginsberg, my very first techie from my very first concert in 1965, was waiting at the Koch stage door after the last show. She had driven up from Virginia in case we needed help with our load-out — not because she was asked but because she still loves being a part of the show. Friends like her, who will do whatever it takes, help me continue to plunge off a very high platform into a very tiny thimble of water, which is the way I describe my first dance, “Tank Dive.” It was a gamble. I survived. Thank you.

Twyla Tharp is a choreographer, dancer and writer.

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